Watcher of the Night Part I
by The Re-searcher
Summary: Dr. Cortex has been defeated for the last time of his life Dr. Brio had sent his letter promising the Iceberg Lab's demise. When a stranger of unknown origin visits the Lab promising assistance, could Brio or Crash stop him? What was his true motive?
1. Prologue: Lord of the Throne

Watcher of the Night (Part One)

**Disclaimer**: Apart from the Watcher of the Night, the Lord of Concealment, Octomech, the Inquisitors, Karshure, Professor Largonhan, General Thomas Wolfe, General Stravinsky, Mademoiselle Fleur Amberly and Professor Cerebral Wiltz Cortex, I do not own all other characters as they are the property of whoever is still making official Crash games. The Academy of Evil, N. Sanity Island, Motorworld AP and other locations specified in the official game series are also not my property, as they are the property of the owner of Crash himself. I also do not own the Turret Emplacements, which is obtained from C&C95. The Shield Generator 2000 idea is adapted from the shield generator in Supreme Commander, so I do not own it. (Anyway, it isn't _really _invented yet.)

**Note**: Please ask for my permission regarding the use of my characters, my settings, and/or the plot. And please send in constructive criticism, because whatever errors/fallacies that exist will continue to be so without them. Other comments or ideas are welcome. While most of this fan fiction is already thought out, inspirations are vital for any future story I may intend to write.

**Language**: Sorry for the Americans – this is in U.K. English.

**Rating**: Now changed to T for ideology influence and cartoon violence.

**Warning**: Major spoilers/cutscenes/information about many Crash games is included.

**Games Referenced**: Crash Bandicoot 1, Crash Bandicoot: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced, Crash Bandicoot: The Warth of Cortex, Crash Twinsanity, Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans, Blitzkrieg 2, Command and Conquer Gold, Command and Conquer Red Alert, Command and Conquer Generals, Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour, Supreme Commander.

I advise you to be familiar with the abovementioned Crash games before continuing.

**Special Thanks to**: The Crash Mania fansite and forums for providing most of information I sorely needed, especially SpaceCat for the potential of Cortex-only games. Wikipedia is also helpful for quick reference. I also thank the people in YouTube for posting the cutscenes of the games. Sorry if I forgot someone's fansite. Most importantly, the game designers themselves for Crash's wonderful birth and you readers for taking your time here.

Now, let's move on to the first of the six-part story. (Three sections in Two Parts)

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First Campaign: The Rise of Dusk

Prologue: Lord of the Throne

Midnight. It is the hour which represents most things dark. It is the moment which portrays many entities evil. And to date it is still the most feared, and respected time of the day. Thick soot-black clouds absorbed the twilight of the stars, and the fog of the ground surrounded the Bois de Boulogne, obscuring anything, and everything, from view. The haze-like mist was strong enough even to block off the sheer intensity of sunlight. Therefore for twenty-four hours a day, the woods were the sanctuary for the darkness, of the ebony characteristics of midnight. No other seasons. Only night.

Yes, someone was behind this dark act. He was the Watcher of the Night.

He now felt the sun high above him, and he knew that even the shine of heaven was helpless against his black prowess. But now, he needed not give a hoot about the weakness of the heavenly bodies. He looked towards the far reaches of the south-east. _Someone needed help there_.

Revealing his most evil grin yet, he called for his son.

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_You are pathetic, Dr. Neo Cortex. Your Castle is now wreckage and you do nothing to stop me? Pathetic. I'm here to say, for the last time, to surrender to my own forces, or be crushed. Don't ever forget that I helped destroy your Cortex Vortex Mark II. I may repeat my feat for your Iceberg Lab. I'll give you five days._

_High Lord of Gasmoxia, Dr. Nitrus Brio._

The Professor of Evil Science sat on his throne, with a stack of papers on a floating tray in front of him. As he pored over the heaps of scientific blueprints and wrote fervently, he could not help thinking about his ex-colleague who had left him over a trivial matter. Now he returned, not to his side, but with a sinister grin and a mind bent on destroying the Iceberg Lab, his very last foothold and research faculty. The fact that he had not done anything yet did not mean that he would not do anything. Signs of creases on his normally flat forehead were apparent. The headache was more obvious (to him). _He needed help._

The room was brimming with clicking, beeping and whirling noises from the nearby Psychetron. Lights blinked all around him. It would have satisfying to hear his stronghold still operating to its fullest, but Dr. Cortex had never felt himself being irritated more. He felt like throwing the heaps of manuscripts to the Psychetron Room and seeing them vanish into the other dimensions. _No, I spent one good year over this mountain of… _He could not think of any word to describe his work (other than 'work'). He frowned as he allowed himself be drowned in the background clanking noise.

"I need help," he declared to himself, as he slouched resignedly against the back-support of his leather throne.

"Sir," a metallic voice clanked throughout the hemispherical room, and the professor sat up abruptly. He needed not look up from his mess of documents to identify the robotic sound of N. Gin.

"Hmph?" came the only reply.

"Someone has arrived by helicopter and he wants to see you. He's not Brio, Crash or their allies. He's unaffiliated."

"Why?" the man on the throne said wearily. _Can't they see I'm working?_ He placed his pen on the tray and shooed the tray away. He closed his eyes, still trying to get over the thousands of calculations that he forgot what his calculations were for.

"You may ask him yourself, sir," N. Gin muttered. The soft diminishing sound of footsteps was enough for the scientist to know that his minion was leaving.

"Wait, N. Gin," the boss called out, "_Bring him here_. And the rest as well."

The Professor of Evil Science hurriedly tried to flatten his horridly creased lab coat, but to no avail. He gave up with a sigh and walked the five steps down the throne.

In a matter of seconds the main door slid open, revealing the troop of scientists behind it. He smiled as he recognized their faces; only N. Gin had been allowed in the Throne Room for the past week.

N. Gin was at the lead, his silver half-mask hiding nothing of his gloom and demented look.

N. Tropy still looked shiny in his golden armour with its systematic whirling noise and the ticks of the dozen of clocks attached, and (thankfully) he did not have his tuning fork in his hand.

N. Trance seemed pale and small beside the Master of Time.

Then the visitor, between Pinstripe and Dingodile (who had apparently decided to bring their weapons along.)…

The man was like no other. His carbon-black tuxedo stood out against the scientist's creamy-white lad coats. His gloves were black. So were his polished shoes, his hair, and the mask that covered his face. Together, everything the professor saw about the man was pure black. More importantly, the man seemed to wield some dark power that there was black mist around his legs, which dissolved into the air and was replaced by another.

_Wait, the cape he had was bluish-black… Why should he care__ about that, so long as he's dark?_

Dr. Cortex forced a grimace, and walked back to his throne.

"Why didn't you say we have a visitor?" the dark brown mask roared, as it barged out from the door opposite the room, which amazingly did not surprise the visitor. And seeing Dr. Cortex's silence, he continued his bellow, "_Why? Don't want to talk to me, is it?_"

Dr. Cortex, to Uka's fury, did not respond as he looked intently at the sinister bearing of the masked man, forcing the gleam into his tired eyes.

"Who're you?" Dr. Cortex said.

"I'm the Lord of Concealment," came the dark, sinister snarl.

N. Tropy's snigger was silent, and the doctor on the throne glared at him. _There was a Master_, Dr. Cortex thought wickedly,_ and now let's see how useful this 'Lord' could help me…_

"I have come to aid you," he said in a deep growl.

Pinstripe and Dingodile stared at each other, bewildered and amazed. As the man surveyed the two creatures beside him, Dr. Cortex ordered, "Pinstripe, Dingodile, leave us."

The scientists (and Uka) waited for the two mutations to hobble out of the main door. As soon as the door closed, the professor on the throne spoke as proudly as his strength could allow.

"What suggestions do you have to help me?"

The visitor took no time to answer.

"First of all, do not reveal yourselves near N. Sanity Island. Keep a low profile."

Dr. Cortex rolled his eyes. _While his defeats over Crash were universal, the first suggestion was far more direct that he'd expected_.

"Why should I hide from those animals, in Malevolence's name?" he said indigently, emphasizing the seventh word.

"They foil you the moment they know you're doing something, so it's much better for them to know nothing instead."

"But I want to be there… to see for myself how Crash falls," the man in the wrinkled lab coat protested in a near-babyish voice.

"That time will come, sir," N. Gin assured him, while the masked man tilted his head slightly to the left, as if looking at the evil scientist with another angle.

"Dr. Cortex," the newcomer's face hid the grin with a frown, "You need a rest. Working for over ten years and still no result? No wonder you have a balding head."

The scientist did not see the joke. "So now you like balding heads, mister? If not, _get out_ of my way."

"I felt myself a duty to inform you that the _thing_ you were talking about earlier has thwarted you over ten times in a row. You should not use 'your way' to pin your enemy down, if you understand why you failed."

"Sir," N. Gin squeaked, "that gentleman has a point. If we want supremacy, we must at least listen to his ideas."

"Second of all, evil genius," the masked man swung around, so that his dark-blue cape covered his body. With a solemn frown, he seemed more sinister than ever, "May I ask you this question: _How well-defended is your Iceberg Lab_?"

The yellow-skinned scientist remained silent; there was one lab on a lonely, icy island and nothing else. The visitor, seeing his silence, cried with is signature deep growl.

"You think your cathedrals will remain standing? You think the ice can keep Crash out? Especially when Coco and Crash found out about it? Your Castle fell because there is almost no resistance against Crash. That's also why your space stations fell to ruin!"

[Note: The Castle is the Cortex Castle where Neo stores the Cortex Vortex, while the space station was used to shrink the Earth. Both were ultimately destroyed, in _Crash Bandicoot_ and _Crash Bandicoot and the Huge Adventure_ respectively.

"But, Lord or whoever you are, we need funding to build up defences," N. Tropy spoke, "You cannot imagine how short of resources we are now…"

"Simple," the reply came plainly, "Look towards the west."

Dr. Cortex could not believe his ears. "You want to us to pit ourselves against the Americans? They will drop _something_ on us before we know it." He imagined an ICBM aimed for his oversized head, and shuddered. He was not the only one; N. Gin shook uncontrollably and his human side of the face was sheet white.

The Lord sighed his biggest yet.

"Eminent scientist," he said, his tone featuring annoyance, "You can think better than that. How do we get that far anyway? Think of our neighbours."

Thoughts filled the evil scientist… Thoughts of the Cluster Islands… about N. Sanity to the north… about the ruins of the otherwise magnificent Cortex Castle to the east… About some giant tree on the fable-like isle to the north-west (that's Wumpa Island)… About the ebony black gates at the west, guarding the…

"Do not tell me you want the Academy of Evil," the scientist allowed his shock to reveal itself in his quivering voice.

"Why not? Think of the facilities that can aid your cause."

Dr. Cortex shook uncontrollably, "_No… _I want nothing to do with that mad woman in there!"

"She who sends people to detention? Then I am afraid that she has to be tamed."

"Tamed?" N. Gin stared disbelievingly into the hollow holes of the mask, "She can be tamed?"

"There is always a way," the Lord of Concealment turned to face Gin, "It occurs to me that you have the talents for the job."

"Impossible, even if we have a hundred talented scientists," N. Gin cried, trying to shake himself from the beautiful fantasy of having control of the Academy, "That old cow has now surrounded her island with robot-operated guns and automated sentries. The Academy is impenetrable. Nothing can get close to her."

"Those guns did not exist two years ago, did they, Mister Tropy?"

Tropy did not answer, although the sparkle in his eyes was as evident as Neo Cortex's open mouth. _He was beginning to see the ingenuity of the plan_.

"So this is your first mission," the mask could not hide the gleam in its master's eyes as he sat on the throne of Iceberg Lab (much to Dr. Cortex's consternation), "Tropy, escort Trance to the Academy of Evil two years ago, when Dr. Cortex makes a nice debut there–"

"I went there to fetch Nina, that's all, you intolerable know-it-all."

"That's a nice distraction to the Headmistress, you _know-it-not_."

Dr. Cortex glared at a giggling N. Trance.

"Back to briefing, Tropy, protect Trance at all costs, because he is mission-critical. Trance, once Tropy gets you back in time, head straight to the Headmistress' office, and take over Madame Amberly's mind. Most importantly," the man inhaled, and continued with all seriousness, "_DO NOT LET ANYONE SEE YOU, INCLUDING DR. CORTEX AND FRIENDS_."

"Whatever for, once we have that woman on our knees?"

"Because time is delicate, Mister Tropy. Trance _must_ allow the Headmistress to act normally and do what she had done from two years ago till now, while having a good grip over her so that he can resume total control whenever he likes. Get her to build those defences, because we need them. Then you must get back here, sometime tomorrow from now. _If you do not see me sitting here when you return, your mission has failed._"

Tropy gulped a mouthful of saliva; he had never got into serious business with Time.

As soon as Tropy and Trance disappeared from view, the masked face turned to scrutinize N. Gin's metallic life-support rocket.

"You're that physics and ballistics researcher, I presume."

The black cape shimmered as its owner nodded.

"I want you to build three ships – one capable of transporting the turrets and the other two as escorts."

"_Three ships_?" N. Gin's artificial eye shone red with alarm as his real eye widened, "It took me a year to build my latest battleship. Three ships will take a long time."

[I refer to his only battleship in _Crash Twinsanity_, which sank just sailing away from Iceberg Lab after a catastrophe with a payload of T.N.Ts

"I prefer smaller, faster boats that can distract Crash and his sister. As for the transport, those turrets will be quite able to protect it."

"But imagine the amount of metal needed for three…"

"Your battleship hull will provide that, seeing that it wouldn't float on water anymore."

The man paused, and crossed his arms.

"Well? Get going, Dr. Gin."

A bewildered Neo Cortex gazed blankly towards a smiling Uka as N. Gin hobbled out of the room. They were the ones left in the Throne Room.

"You know what, doc?" the dark wooden mask beamed as it croaked, "Finally I begin to see some brains."

"I've got brains too, Uka."

"Shut up, Cortex," the little bones knocked against one another as Uka came to inches from the scientist's nose. The yellow orbs were staring directly into Dr. Cortex's dull grey eyes. Then it continued derisively (with its leftmost bone hanging just a centimetre from Cortex's open mouth), "The size of your head is more of a hindrance than of help."

Dr. Cortex closed his mouth like a goldfish.

"I daresay Crash, Crunch and Coco were your best inventions, Dr. Cortex?"

Uka returned to his original position, swiftly converting his frown to a smile. Dr. Cortex grimaced at the beaming man on _his_ throne, and forlornly nodded.

[Crash, Crunch and Coco were Dr. Cortex's inventions in the sense that they were what they are due to his experiments, which were then successes, except for the fact that they could not be twisted by the forces of evil.

"And you remember how you created their superhuman minds?"

An angry nod followed as Dr. Cortex was reminded of his accursed arch-enemy.

"And the Cortex Vortex would not work?"

Another nod with a clearer frown. The masked man laughed.

"So you should know how to build the Evolve Reversal Device," he said.

Laughter followed, this time from the notorious dark-brown mask. The men looked at the mask with surprise, still maintaining their smile/frown.

"_Ingenious_!" Uka cried as it swooped down to the throne's side, "But pray tell me how are you going to get them into that machine, provided that we can get our hands on them?"

[The Cortex Vortex and the Evolve-O-Ray both require the subject to be in the respective 'activation area' because they cannot shoot 'long-distance' at a target.

"No need for that, evil mask. Equip that device with one similar to the cannon used to shrink the Earth, and we have the master artillery that turns people mindless."

Uka's laughter was louder than ever, then he stopped, still grinning its most sinister one yet.

"Better not laugh so loud," it whispered cautiously, "lest Aku can hear me."

"Which comes to your task, Uka."

The grin disappeared, "I have to do something?"

"All the time. I am sure you know that humans are incapable of hiding themselves from Aku."

"So?"

"Use your dark powers to hide our actions from that feathery piece of wood. If Aku sees nothing, neither will Crash, Coco or anyone else against us."

The wooden smile re-showed itself on Uka's dark lumber. And within a second, the mask disappeared.

"So," the men faced each other again, this time with Dr. Cortex slightly amazed by the Lord's cleverness, "Dr. Cortex, you may start working with the device. Make sure that it can be self-powered and be easily transportable, in case the worst happens."

[Note that the Evolvo-O-Ray, the Cortex Vortex and many other inventions by Dr. Cortex cannot be moved easily – they are huge emplacements.

"But, you as Lord of something, surely you need to do something."

"Of course, evil genius," the black mask emitted howls of laughter, "I do the planning and the commanding, and meanwhile I shall round up my forces stationed in the rest of the world and get my advisors to assist you. You are a great inventor, and I will leave you as that. I'll be back tomorrow to check how N. Tropy is doing."

The man got up from the throne and started walking towards the exit.

"Wait."

The man turned to face the scientist, the mask still concealing his smiling face.

"Why do you want to help us?" Dr. Cortex spoke.

"Why?" the Lord of Concealment repeated the scientist's first word, "Wasn't it you who wanted help?"

Dr. Cortex watched silently as the man wheeled around and strode off into the bright-white snow outside. The black copter shimmered in its most magnificent polish as the man drove it into the sky, towards the north-west.

The sun was setting, covering the snow-white ground with a yellowish-orange hue.

_Orange._ He turned away from the icy ground with disgust. Then another thought came to him.

_Once I have that marsupial out of my life, I will be able to watch the beautiful sunset again_.

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Tawna could not believe her eyes. From the windows of the Moulin Cortex pub, she could see dark clouds hovering around what seemed like a conical structure. The shape of the structure was enough to send the inquisitive bandicoot to the chilling cold outside. The dark clouds did nothing; they just floated there, awaiting their master's call. Then she saw a dark speck she identified as the Ebony Dragonfly-16 Copter, a secret operations assault aircraft for the French, much more manoeuvrable than the formidable Black Hawk. She merely stared at the thick, soot-like smog as they surrounded the helicopter and disappeared into the horizon.

_What could the French special-ops be doing in Cortex's laboratory?_

Still, she had to warn Aku-Aku about this.

[Review or visit the Watcher of the Night/see the darker side of the City of Lights.


	2. Chapter 1: The Secrecy of Decree

Chapter 1: The Secrecy of Decree

Tropy and Trance watched from behind the gigantic organ as electric bolts surged through the emerald room. They had entered the Headmistress' Office from the ground floor. They cowered behind the pipes, though they knew the green acidic mist could cover them from detection (and thus detention) easily.

"Now I understand why Dr. Cortex looked _shocked_ about his detention," Trance whispered as greenish bullets danced around the organ, followed by electric-blue sparks. Tropy looked disgusted upon hearing Dr. Cortex's screams of fright and the erratic organ sounds that proved its musical disaster. But those shouts of agony were not the only thought that disturbed the human in a bulky, noisy (although not as noisy as Cortex's screams), mechanical suit.

_That gentleman… He holds much power in his thoughts… He is much more intelligent than Dr. Cortex… No doubt we can regain our foothold over these few territories… But what made him approach us and promise our victory?_

"You think he's roasted or something?"

Tropy stared blankly at his colleague, a pink, delicate egg-shaped head reinforced by a golden and silver 'spacesuit'. Then he looked up towards the top of the organ, where deafening noises erupted. The bluish sparks did a jig around one of the pipes.

"Oh, he survived that, so don't worry about it," he summarized.

Then there was a female scream/screech, a loud thud and the organ stopped playing. How the other man brought her down the duo never knew but nevertheless they approached the unconscious gigantic mass of the fallen as quietly as they can.

"Phenomenal," the golden clocks hummed as their master kicked a finger the size of a baseball bat, "What did she eat?"

"I'd say outrageous, Tropy, that she needs to have her room ten times as big as any other," came the reply, taking no notice of the question.

He walked up to the Headmistress' face, and knocked her forehead with his metallic arms.

"It's done," Trance squeaked.

"Then get going," the Master of Time glanced awkwardly towards the entrances to the office, "The freaking prefects will be here next. We still have to get back to Iceberg Lab unseen!"

"Let's hide ourselves in that blimp outside. I certainly refuse to swim to the lab."

"You may try in record time."

Together they sprinted towards the corridor to the nearest exit. Then Trance bumped into something soft and warm… no, someone. A hand stopped Tropy and pushed him brutally to the floor.

"I knew that there are unwelcome visitors on the rampage, when I heard that disgusting scream–"

Then the smartly-dressed professor stopped mid-sentence and ran blindly towards the Headmistress. Trance stretched his hand towards the other scientist.

"Thank you, Trance," he said as he took the hand, and got up himself. (You expect an egg to haul a clock-filled scientist up?)

The air was refreshing in the corridor, as compared with the stifling and acid/sulphur-filled air in the office itself (_Tropy: "Does a janitor work there?" Trance: "She needs a hundred more of them. I bet that was from her sweat."_). Then they heard a wailing siren and the sound of rushing air. As they ran out of the colossal Headmistress' Office, they gaped in utter dismay as the blimp floated harmlessly into the night sky.

"Hope nobody sees us," Tropy said as he struck his tuning fork with the clock-face over his chest.

The airship returned to its docking position, and they could Dr. Cortex and his niece hurried footsteps above them as uncle-and-niece clambered up the stairs which led to the blimp.

"I knew something is fishy about that little balloon up there," growled the professor (which they knew they would take care of in the corridors) as he stepped into the Headmistress' Office, oblivious to their presence.

"Wait," Tropy pulled Trance back before he stepped into the open field; the sound of Crash's sneakers was unmistakable above them.

They waited, impatiently, for Crash to haul himself up the airship. Then they heard the engines rumbling.

"Now we go."

Trance never remembered the speed of which his little greyish legs could carry him, nor did he understand whether Tropy was adjusting the speed of time (slow it down, that is) to make them run faster. Trance had never felt his legs ache so badly before. Then he remembered his legs were not supposed to feel pain.

Maybe it was pure luck, or maybe it was Tropy's ever-expert skill, that at the moment they grabbed handrails attached to the entrance of the blimp there was a loud wail and the enormous zeppelin lurched with amazing speed towards the bright moon.

"Phew," Tropy said, gripping tightly to the banister as his feet dangled helplessly in the air, "That was close."

There was a click, and both Tropy and Trance stared with horror at the closed door as the N-shaped lock turned shut.

"I have something to say to Dr. Cortex once we get back," Tropy growled in his signature British accent.

-------------

Bartending bored him. Revenge sounded more exciting.

Just outside the lightly guarded launch silo, Dr. Brio stared out into the open space. He liked space, the oblivion and the darkness associated with it. The stars were merely nuisance…

…as much as a nuisance as the empty-headed scientist he had worked with nearly seven years ago.

_But Dr. Cortex, we have not determined the cause of past failures! _

_But… Dr. Cortex, the Vortex is not ready! We have no idea what it could do!_

[Both are N. Brio's quotations in _Crash Bandicoot_

Still, in his arrogance the senior Cortex simply waved his warnings aside as went on to have _his way_, which had obviously kept Dr. Cortex's wishes at bay for a good seven years.

He crept stealthily across the compound, making sure to zap each scientist who saw him with his latest invention yet. Quietly and sneakily, he traversed around the military zone, following his flawless theory called the Secrecy of Decree. _The Decree that allowed him to traverse undetected. _He swung around, like an agent, and zapped the soldier who was on the brink of seeing him. The guard just looked away and walked away from him.

The Decree was simple - _Do not engage their six senses._ The sixth sense of intuition could be dealt with his trusty gadget, and the other five with sheer skill, which he had learnt and mastered. Artfully he dodged past the virtual lines of sight, making no sound in the process and at the same time ensuring that his gadget was always loaded.

Finally he got to the revered destination: the shuttle directly beneath the silo-hatch. From his pocket, Brio brandished a black remote the size of a calculator. _The compacted carbon-copy of Coco's computer_. He grinned. He forgot how he managed to get to her laptop in the first place, but he knew she wasn't around then. Quickly he placed the black gadget against the door and pressed a few buttons. _Pathetic U.S. encryption… only to be defeated by a mere bandicoot. _The door opened, and in a flash Brio closed it behind him.

As the dark-skinned scientist clambered the various flights of ladders towards the command, he considered the sweet girl Dr. Cortex called his 'niece'. _I know too well that Dr. Cortex has no siblings. _Still, the younger Cortex proved to be much better. When she finally succeeded the senior, she had started a mass campaign to provide her forces with enough resources. It was evident that the systems in her invention (not doubt co-built with an unhappy Coco) were perfect and automated, leaving her with the defence system, which no doubt the infamous marsupial had beaten.

[Nina Cortex, under Uka's orders, succeeded Neo Cortex and started a tree-felling, lava/mineral-extracting campaign to build the Doominator in _Crash of the Titans_.

_Alas_, he thought as he remembered receiving news of the Doominator crashing and the new leader fleeing, _she needs further guidance regarding critical planning. _He felt that such danger of failure would be adverted if Nina would place the hostage Coco _away _from the mech, since it was transparently obvious that Crash would place his sister above the island, and ignore the machine yet. And Coco would have to get to the controls if she wanted to bring it down. If only she would separate those two key structures, the island would be damaged beyond repair.

_No use crying over spilled poison… They still have a chance against the bandicoots, like me against that Doctor._

[The Doominator robot, with Nina Cortex at its helm, was destroyed when its critical systems are defeated by Coco Bandicoot in _Crash of the Titans_. In Nina's folly, Coco was taken hostage in the Doominator itself, just a few metres above the master controls.

Now he looked at the controls before him, one with twice the number of buttons you'd see in a pilot's cockpit. Buttons of varying shapes, sizes and colours filled his cockpit. Brio knew what he was doing when he pressed the button just in front of him. A female metallic voice responded.

LAUNCH ACTIVATED – SILO HATCH OPENING

He took the gun with the word 'Interrupter' over the barrel from the shuttle's armoury. _In case I'm not welcome…_

He laughed as he was pushed against his horizontal seat as the space shuttle lurched into the air. Only Coco could stop him, and she was too busy with his ex-colleague. Just what he needed. He must thank Dr. Cortex for that.

Now, he thought about Gasmoxia's beautiful planet, a safe haven where he would have access to superior technology he sorely required. He held the gun in his hands. _Cortex_, he said to himself through gritted teeth, _sometime later I'll be back_. _Maybe by two years._

[Review or take Tropy's place at the blimp.


	3. Chapter 2: Everyone has Weaknesses

Chapter 2: Everyone Has Weaknesses

Dr. Cortex shuffled his feet uneasily, very aware that it was evening. The visitor sat, again, on the former's throne. Worriedly, the scientist paced around the room.

"Why, eminent scientist?" the man asked, his tone deathly serious, "Afraid that they could not return?"

Before the scientist could utter a word, the door to the exit opened, and someone blue toppled onto the metallic corridor.

The masked man rose from the black, leather throne, and walked briskly towards the unconscious Master of Time. As Dr. Cortex approached N. Tropy, he could observe distinctly the egg-shaped robot pulling the hand of the fallen, and the puddles of half-freezing water stretching from the duo to the snows outside. More importantly, Tropy's clothes were wet.

"What happened?" Dr. Cortex's usually authoritative voice was quivering with fear. _Did Madame Amberly get them_? The scientist was shuddering at the thought; while the very fact that they returned was the true indication of success, the sight of the usually self-possessed Master of Time on the floor, battered and seemingly lifeless, seemed to rob his very breath.

"Long story, Dr. Cortex," the Master Mind (Trance's new nickname) spoke, "We got back here hanging dangerously off the entrance of blimp. Remember those railings?"

The professor of Evil Science remembered the time when he and Nina stepped out of the airship to the landing platform, impatient to get the Psychetron back to working order. But he knew he saw nobody there…

"Then we knew you were about to get out of that door," Trance continued somewhat in a state of shock, "So we released our grip on the railings… a bit too early."

"We missed the platform, and we were plunging down fifty feet towards the ground… Tropy then brought us back to this morning, but that wasn't of any use against the fact that we are still falling."

"Luckily for me, we landed into the water; I cannot survive such a fall onto the hard snowy ground. But it was nearly Tropy's undoing, as he sank helplessly, pulled down by his own metallic contraptions. I tried my best to pull him to the shore, and I did. But I could only fear that he was so nearly drowned, that he was petrified."

"Let me," the masked man bent over the lifeless body, "He's still breathing." With an incredible might, he pulled the body onto his hands and lifted Tropy, carefully cradling it like a child as he walked towards the throne. Once there, the masked man placed Tropy's warm body onto the seat. The Master of Time slumped into the leather chair, like a sleeping king.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cortex could only stare with horror at his minion resting comfortably on _his _throne. He dreaded to think of the moment he ceased being boss over the company… _Patience._ _Boss or not, he must rule the world… and more vitally, rid himself of the bandicoots. He could take over as real boss after that._

"Where's N. Gin?" he cried, trying to distract himself from the fantasies that had never been fulfilled, "Has he started work on those transports yet?"

"What transports?" Trance asked suspiciously.

[Review or get drowned.


	4. Chapter 3: The Unseen Lives

Chapter 3: The Unseen Life of Nefarious Gin and Neo Cortex

He was alone in the room. All alone. An artist's impression of his former self (that is, before he had the hideous mask) was in his hands. He smiled to his innocent, boyish looks he had lost about ten years ago. Quietly he hung the portrait to the cold, metallic wall, where he could see his real reflection – a steel skull-like plate stretching from the entire scalp to the chin, clasped and nailed over the right of his face.

From the corner of his robotic eye, he sighted the picture of a giggling female bandicoot beside his terrified self, their pink and grey cars fusing into one...

_He could see himself rejoicing before his greatest experiment yet – a two-hundred-ton spider-like behemoth. He aimed the Uranium-powered cannon towards the glossy titanium armour. "It better survive that," he muttered, taking one last look towards the masterpiece he had taken three years to construct._

_N. Gin was not his true name. In fact, 'Nefarious' was his title created by his other colleagues in the U.S. Mechanical Engineering Agency. His true name was Alex Occo Gin. Because they called him 'brainy aleck' so often, he decided to use his nickname instead. Otherwise he was admired by his fellows. Back then he was called Nefarious Occo Gin._

_He put on his oxygen mask, and pulled the trigger._

_A green beam of light erupted from the cannon, and streaked across the warehouse leaving what seemed like a long, thin, emerald wire. Gin knew and understood, however, the immense power that the apparently weak projection carried; this laser melts iron in a second, and burns the oxygen in the air. It was even more lethal than the little ray-gun the High Professors had always had._

_He closed his eyes; his eyes seared in the fiery light that the behemoth emitted in response. Even so, the infrared burned his face ever so slightly. In his mind he chuckled, thinking of how smart he was to engineer the monstrous machine and provide it with the greatest gift an artificial being could have – the equivalent of the human brain. The monster would do anything to protect itself._

_Then the burning stopped; the cannon had depleted its uranium source. And the weapons specialist opened his eyes slowly. _

_Then came the biggest shock of his life._

_He still remembered the spider-like structure. It was still there. The sheer platinum/titanium plates had not received as much as a dent. But the spider seemed angry, having had three missile launchers aimed directly from each of its eight legs towards him… its immediate master. Then the outer shell of its armour opened up, bringing out more weapons of various kinds attached to smaller robotic arms – more missile launchers, 27 automated machine guns, 12 laser devices (acting as guns now), two Uranium Laser Cannons, and even a Tesla Coil…_

_Pieces of metal were flying towards the behemoth while the Tesla Coil charged up._

[The Tesla Coil refers to the real uncontrolled Tesla Coil invented by Tesla (obviously), not the one in games like the _Red Alert series_. It fires at everything and anything within its limited range.

_That was his greatest experiment yet… his masterpiece._

_The perfect killing machine…_

_Now against a man with a useless Uranium Laser._

_Then the machine suddenly produced a thick-black mist from the hatches around its spiky legs (in substitution to the hair). Gin was thoroughly astonished. He knew the behemoth's logic – it sends out black mist only when it sensed danger… And what danger could it find in an armed man lacking ammunition?_

_Then the gigantic spider started to fade away in the mist, its Uranium Laser melting the steel roof above it. "Escape?" he found himself muttering. Then a sudden rush of air made him close his eyes in pain. His ears were screaming from the air pressure. Then came the deafening sound of a hundred jets. The warehouse trembled, as though there was an earthquake._

_Then everything stopped. The monster got away, hating him who tried to shoot it down. "Couldn't Octomech understand that I was just testing its armour?" Gin muttered in his juicy boyish voice. Then he opened his eyes, to see 24 Millennium-AG missiles rushing towards him like flying darts._

_-------------_

_When he woke up, he was facing a yellow face wit__h deeply set eyes. The head, he noticed, had numerous scars on it and the hair was severely burnt, so that only hair above the forehead and near the ears remained._

"_Here," his saviour said as Gin tried desperately to get up, "Don't try to get up yet; you need rest."_

_He could only hear faintly, but enough to decipher what the yellow-faced man was talking about._

_The saviour, who was bandaging his head, had a deep growl in his voice, yet still sounded young… like him._

"_I saw two dozen missiles after me," the boy said, slumping back onto the operating bed, "Am I alive?"_

_His ears could not detect the new metallic grate in the his own voice._

"_I hate ghosts," came the simple reply, "So you're as alive as I am."_

"_How did you get hurt?"_

"_Oh, that. Something shot a second's worth of Uranium Laser above me before disappearing to the darkness."_

_Gin immediately felt sorry and guilty for him._

"_Why did you save me?"_

_There was a pause._

"_How can I waste such a brilliant talent like you, Gin? And a great physicist is what I needed."_

_So you just want my talents, Gin thought bitterly._

"_Anyway," the saviour finished his bandaging; his head looked like a white inverted cone with holes for the eyes and nose, "Surely you are too young to die…"_

_Gin remembered he was only twenty-two._

"_Now," the saviour said as he walked towards the door, "rest."_

_As the saviour opened the door and his footsteps echoed around the room. He tried to get up. His joints burned and his muscles ached, but he managed to get to a sitting position on the bed. The wall in front of him was made of shiny metal, and he stared. He was looking at an image the metal plates, the boy in the image sitting on the bed… donning what seemed like a silver metallic half-mask with a red, white and ebony rocket on it. _

_The boy fainted._

"_Dr. Cortex," he cried out as soon as he was sure he had recovered, "What have you done to my face?"_

_The said doctor merely shook his head in sorrow._

"_I really don't know where those seven rockets came from."_

_The boy that wielded the hideous face froze. Was he hit seven times?_

"_I saw many other missiles that impacted the walls around you, but when I found you, I thought you were dead. Until I heard that you're wheezing."_

"_Immediately I took you to the Ice Chamber, which I dreadfully hope would preserve your life enough for the emergency operation. I figured out you had only twenty minutes of life. Swiftly, I contacted the surgeons, as well as High Professor Cerebral Cortex, and they arrived in even less time."_

_As the man shuddered slightly, Gin now recognized the unique shape of the saviour's face, belonging to Cerebral's only son._

"_Carefully, we removed bits and pieces of blast fragments and the live warheads in the rocket shells, from your body. Your face was totally burnt at the right side, and we prepared the titanium cast to protect the fragile remains of the skull, and the red mass of damaged blood vessels that surrounded your respectable brain."_

_Although the boy was feeling nauseous at the gory description of his own head, he urged the doctor to continue._

"_Then came the decisive moment of the operation. We have removed everything dangerous and life-threatening, except for the rocket planted neatly into your right cerebrum. Then we saw that your temperature was dropping rapidly, and discovered to our dismay that your hypothalamus (the temperature control centre in the mid-brain) has failed."_

_The man inhaled deeply, as though seeing a nightmarish vision of a cold inert body in front of him._

"_Immediately we took you out of the Ice Chamber to this room. By then you had a minute left to live since it's winter anyway. Then my father had a glorious idea. And we started work right away. Within fifty-six seconds we attached the last rocket's warhead to the defunct hypothalamus. Slow chemical reactions in that compartment were what gave the heat to keep you alive till now. Your life now depended on it."_

_As the son of the High Professor finished, he started to breathe normally again._

"_Just take note, m'boy," he spoke warmly, "That new temperature system you have is vulnerable to magnetic fields, so just in case you approach one, your right vision will turn red, so as to warn you."_

"_My right eye? Is it destroyed and replaced as well?"_

_The man patted the boy lightly on the back._

"_No longer after some modifications."_

_The man paused, then said in a hopeful tone._

"_I'll be leaving for Australia tomorrow. For a nice holiday. Care to join me?"_

_Gin turned to face the deeply set eyes. He just understood how close he was from the hands from Death. Besides, Octomech was still out in the world, especially America. He just wanted to get away from that continent, as far as possible. Australia would be far more ideal than Antarctica. _

"_You're my saviour, and now I entrust my life to you."_

_Now the boy, encased in his pathetic life-support system, followed his new master, the Professor of Evil Science, because he knew he could not return to the real world out there. His nearly-forgotten name will always haunt him like the dark mist in his dreams._

_Then terrible news came to the far reaches of Australia._

"_My father's murdered?" Dr. Cortex screamed into his telephone. Tears streamed from his eyes. One could tell he had loved his father, the Honourable Cerebral Wiltz Cortex. The son dropped the phone and ran away from the castle we had discovered not long ago. Brio told Gin not to look for him, for he needs silence to calm himself. _

"_He needs a friend, Nitrus, like us!" Gin protested._

"_I know him better than you do," the dark-skinned biologist said, looking at his master from a good distance, "He likes to solve problems of the heart alone. He harshly told me to go away when his mother–"_

"_His mother's murdered as well?"_

"_No, she drowned. An accident, but no doubt left the child scarred with torment. You know what?" he turned to face Gin, "The reason why Dr. Cortex refuses to treat his daughter as his closest kin is that he did not want to see another loved one taken away from him…"_

"_You mean Nina's his daughter?"_

"_Dr. Cortex has no siblings; how could he have nieces?"_

"_His wife?"_

"_Died in labour."_

_The next day, the master returned to the doors of his castle, with evil in his mind. As Gin opened the doors warmly to allow his entry, the master cried malevolently, "I must take over the world!"_

"_Why, Dr. Cortex?" Dr. Brio said in sheer surprise, "I thought we want a nice long break?"_

"_Not with someone after my family. I must find that murderer!"_

"_Leave it to the police then."_

"_Brio, can't you see the stark facts? My father works in the U.S. Defence Ministry, and he's a prominent member at that! You think the police can find the creature that killed a Defence Minister?"_

"_I understand… But surely there's no need to wage a war with the world…"_

"_No one can conceal the truth from a dictator, could he?"_

_While Brio and Dr. Cortex argued about reason, Gin could not help admire his master's love towards his father, that he would fight the rest of the world just to avenge his father's death._

_Revenge is now strong in Master, Gin concluded as Brio finally stood speechless._

_A year later, he remained in Australia, secretly constructing the Cortex Vortex in N. Brio's absence, so that it looked as if his master built the fearsome device himself. He did not care if he could not get ownership to the device; he just wanted security, like a helpless, desperate boy. Besides, Dr. Cortex's originality had always amazed him. He was even more pleasantly surprised when he replaced Brio within another month. Could a boy like him really achieve that far, working by the side of the son of the High Professor? While he was at his work, he forgot all about the killing machine he had created not long ago._

_Until Coco._

_When N. Gin first heard her name, he stared at the person who said it with shock. The said person was Nina Cortex, Master's 'niece', back to the Castle for a school vacation. As the Gothic woman berated about the 'good genius' in the bandicoot named Coco, N. Gin could not help reminiscing his earlier years in his life, at the time before his face was disfigured. _

_Coco. Occo. A perfect anagram. A perfect link to what he did not want to see._

_Then the scene in the warehouse came to his mind…_

"_I need some rest," N. Gin cried half-frightened as he spilled the rest of his glass of water (which he had been drinking from) over a horrified Nina._

"_You don't have to fill me with your water just to go," the girl cried back, but N. Gin was already leaving, not caring about her exclamations._

_Then he heard Pinstripe say to Nina, "Oh, don't bother him with your words. He needs medication for depression, not your boring spee–"_

_Then chaos ensued, both in the room and in the boy's mind._

_No, he thought as he rushed back to his room, I am not depressed… just deathly worried._

_Alex Occo Gin had invented the Octomech, and now the mech was searching for Nefarious Gin._

_And he knew the mech's legendary magnetic field would destroy that life-support rocket and kill him instantly._

_That memory was apparently revoked again as Coco slammed into N. Gin's car in his first race in Motorworld AP. While N. Gin stared shocked and open-mouthed as the vehicles merged while running along the track, Coco merely grinned._

"_As long as it isn't your master…"_

_N. Gin didn't hear the rest, because he quickly pressed the button to get his car off hers. He skidded along the sides of the track, and then collided with an infuriated Nina._

_Coco won the race._

[Truthfully, there weren't any real clashes between Coco and N. Gin throughout the series, so I assumed the absence of hate between the duo.

"_What's the matter?" his master said after the race, looking into the boy's pale face._

_He shook his head, grinning stupidly. No one should know about Occomech. Yet. Not even his master._

_As Dr. Cortex left to 'check on Von Clutch's situation', N. Gin heard a familiar, female voice a wall away._

"_You know what, Crash?" Crash's sister whispered audibly, "N. Gin, he's soooo cuuuute when he'd looked at me."_

_The physicist slumped against the wall, unconscious._

So was the real N. Gin, against his chair.

[Yes, if you've guessed, I plan to pull the duo together. Evidence lies in the deleted scenes of _Twinsanity_: N. Gin had an infatuation towards his master disguised as Coco. Dr. Cortex decided to reveal himself as N. Gin tried to kiss the poor disguised (and disgusted) man in the battleship. I'm not sure if the bandicoot was interested in the physicist though.

[So now eview or have water poured on you.

[Okay, now I will be sitting back and waiting for reviews to come so that I can improve on my next 'shipment' of chapters. Yes, without 12 reviews, I will not post up new chapters. I'm writing not just for its sake, but to train myself.


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